Miscommunication my ass..PM backpedals on media ban
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision to keep the media away from flag-draped caskets returning from war-torn Afghanistan flies in the face of what his daughter died for, said Tim Goddard.
At Capt. Nichola Goddard's funeral in Calgary yesterday, Goddard criticized Harper's decision to keep the media out of CFB Trenton when caskets of fallen soldiers arrive from Afghanistan.
"I cannot support that decision," Tim said.
Waiting for the casket to be taken off the aircraft at the Ontario base was heart-wrenching, but a limited number of press representatives would not have intruded in his family's grief, he said.
"I find it troubling that the privacy decision means that we are keeping the press outside the wire, where the bad guys are," he said. "I would like to think that Nichola died to protect our freedoms, not to restrict them."
Last month, the Harper government announced it would no longer permit media into the base when fallen soldiers arrive, saying the policy was permanent.
But yesterday, Harper suggested the situation was the result of miscommunication.
"I had given fairly clear instructions that when bodies were to come home, that families should be consulted and if all families agreed on making that particular ceremony public, then I thought our government should have no difficulty with that," he said.
Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor also weighed in on the controversy, denying the government is hiding anything. He said some families don't believe the media should cover the event, while others do. He said they decided to ban all media coverage to have a consistent policy.
PM backs down on policy for fallen
GLORIA GALLOWAY AND MICHAEL DEN TANDT
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
VICTORIA and OTTAWA — Families of soldiers killed overseas will decide whether the country can watch their loved ones return home, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said yesterday, reversing his government's policy hours after a grieving father said his daughter died to defend freedoms not restrict them.
Mr. Harper said he was troubled to learn that Tim Goddard, the father of Captain Nichola Goddard, said during a eulogy at her funeral that he disagreed with the government's decision to keep reporters away from the airfield when bodies arrive back in Canada.
“I had given fairly clear instructions that, when bodies were to come home, families were to be consulted,” Mr. Harper said at a news conference in Victoria. “And if all families were agreed on making that particular ceremony public, that our government should have no difficulty with that. I'm not sure what happened in this case.”
Mr. Harper said he spoke with Dr. Goddard this week. “He didn't raise the issue with me so I didn't realize there was a problem, but obviously I'll look into it and find out if the family's wishes were different to what was done and why that was the case and we'll correct it in the future.”
Long-standing Canadian military policy has been to consult with families to determine whether they want the media on the tarmac at CFB Trenton when coffins are removed from the planes bringing them home. The overwhelming majority have agreed.
That changed this winter after the Conservatives took office. Reporters were told they were no longer welcome and defence staff said the decision came from the government.
“I find it troubling that the privacy decision means we are keeping the press outside the wire, where the bad guys are,” Dr. Goddard said at his daughter's funeral in Calgary yesterday. “I would like to think that Nichola died to protect our freedoms, not to restrict them.”
The ramp ceremony was an emotional time, Dr. Goddard said, adding that he appreciated being surrounded by Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor, Chief of Defence Staff General Rick Hillier and so many other military personnel, many of whom had known his daughter before she died in combat in Afghanistan.
“However, I cannot support the privacy decision,” he said.
There was room on the tarmac for a military videographer and a still photographer and they did not intrude on the family's grief, he said.
“I can see no reason why a shared feed arrangement could not be made with one television camera and one press photographer allowed at the ceremony and instructed to keep within a certain area.”
Mr. O'Connor has said that it was his decision to keep such events private and, until yesterday, Mr. Harper gave every impression that he agreed.
“My view is that, first and foremost, that if families do want privacy, particularly when a body comes home, I think that's very understandable,” Mr. Harper said yesterday. “We only would open it if there was a clear wish by all families involved that it be open. That was not the case in the previous case.”
Mr. Harper's climb-down followed weeks of criticism, including from some families of fallen soldiers. Faced with a growing chorus of dissent from the very people he was claiming to be protecting, Mr. Harper apparently decided he was fighting a losing battle.
“I think Prime Minister Harper has got very strong opinions on a lot of things that don't necessarily connect to the Canadian people,” Jane Wilson said Thursday. Her son, Master Corporal Timothy Wilson, died in March after a vehicle accident in Afghanistan.
Ms. Wilson was a strong advocate of full public access, saying it allowed the country, and distant relatives, to grieve alongside her. She said that Mr. Harper had told her, in a face-to-face meeting, that the policy was intended to lessen public focus on the number of fallen soldiers coming home.
The government's reversal also came amid increasingly pointed opposition attacks on the policy and contradictory statements by the Prime Minister and his Defence Minister in recent days.
The Prime Minister said in a televised interview Wednesday that military families had been consulted before the ban was introduced, but Mr. O'Connor said they were not.
“I'm actually struck by Mr. Harper's ability to manufacture facts,” Liberal defence critic Ujjal Dosanjh said yesterday, shortly before the media ban was overturned. “He manufactured the consultation of the families in this case.”
NDP defence critic Dawn Black also attacked the government on the contradiction. “You wonder who is telling the truth in this,” she said.